Networks

Abstract

In this episode, I share a conversation I had with Bonnie Stewart in November 2015. This conversation grew out of her involvement with Digital Pedagogy Lab, a one-week on-ground institute hosted by Hybrid Pedagogy and the University of Wisconsin—Madison. At Digital Pedagogy Lab, Bonnie led a weeklong track on Networks. According to the promotional material for that track, it focused “on the nature of digital networks and network-building, from blogs and social media to open courses and collaboration,” included “discussions of MOOCs, rhizomatic learning, how influence and reputation circulate in professional learning networks, the social contracts of closed and networked spaces, and the intersections between networks and face-to-face learning environments,” and aimed to “consider how networks are both responding to and creating the Internet as a learning environment.”

That’s a lot to fit into five days, and certainly too much for one HybridPod episode. But Bonnie and I do talk about how networks and learning exist symbiotically in society and in today’s structured education systems. Along the way, we also talk about outcomes, identity, power relations, and activism. It’s a thoughtful conversation about a complex topic. I hope you’ll join us.